Barnes v. Pierce

• Decision Date: 27 June 1952
• Parties: BARNES et al. v. PIERCE et al. 36 Tenn.App. 181, 253 S.W.2d 33
• Court: Tennessee Court of Appeals

Page 33

253 S.W.2d 33

BARNES et al. v. PIERCE et al.

36 Tenn.App. 181, 253 S.W.2d 33

Court of Appeals of Tennessee, Middle Section.

June 27, 1952.

Certiorari Denied by Supreme Court Oct. 10, 1952.

[36 TENNAPP 182] Lewis S. Pope, Nashville, for complainant.

R. H. Roberts, Byrdstown, H. S. Barnes and W. Keith Crawford, Cookeville, for defendants.

HOWELL, Judge.

The petition in this case was filed as an original bill by Mrs. Minnie B. Barnes who was one of the complainants and alleges that a final consent decree was entered in the original case on March 19, 1945, which decree construed the will of her deceased husband J. W. Barnes and determined the rights of the parties interested in the estate.

The petition sets out the circumstances under which the consent decree was proposed and agreed to by the parties and then alleges a difference of opinion had arisen as to whether or not under this consent decree some funds in the registry of the Federal Court, paid in by the United States Government for land of J. W. Barnes condemned for the construction of the Hales Bar dam and resulting lake, were the property of the petitioner Mrs. Minnie B. Barnes or her stepdaughter, the defendant Mrs. Edna Pierce, a daughter of J. W. Barnes by a former marriage.

[36 TENNAPP 183] The petition then sets out that defendant Mrs. Edna Pierce had filed a petition in the United States District Court claiming an interest in these funds and that the matter had been called to the attention of the United States District Judge and it was agreeable to him to have the controversy disposed of in the Chancery Court and an order entered in the Federal Court in accord with the decree of the Chancellor in this case.

The petition then prays that the consent decree be construed by the Chancellor and that all of the fund in the Federal Court be decreed to belong to the petitioner Mrs. Minnie B. Barnes.

A demurrer and an answer were filed by the defendant in which she admits the condemnation of the land and the payment of the funds into the Federal Court and also the entry of the consent decree in the original case.

It is insisted by the defendant that the balance of the funds derived from the condemnation of the Barnes land should be distributed as personalty and that under the consent decree she is entitled to her share of it as personalty.

The case was heard by the Chancellor by consent of the parties upon oral testimony and documentary evidence and a written memorandum of facts and opinion filed by the Chancellor upon which a decree was entered holding that all the money derived from the condemnation proceedings is the property of the petitioner Mrs. Minnie B. Barnes and that Mrs. Edna B. Pierce has no interest whatever in any of the funds in the District Court.

The defendant has properly perfected an appeal to this Court and has assigned errors.

The subject matter of the controversy, namely, the funds in the District Court, were paid into Court for a part of what is known in the record as part of the [36 TENNAPP 184] J. G. Crouch and Harrison Guffey lands which belonged to J. W. Barnes. Proceedings for condemnation were instituted with reference to these lands in 1943 prior to the death of J. W. Barnes in 1944.

The part of the sixth item in the will of J. W. Barnes which is pertinent to the matters in controversy here is as follows 'Sixth: I give and bequeath to my wife, Minnie B. Barnes the following described tracts of land all lying in Pickett County, Tennessee: What is known as the J. G. Crouch tract of land in the old fifth district of Pickett County, and being the tract where we now live, and the tract known as the Harrison Guffey tracts of 50 and 100 acres, respectively, adjoining the Crouch tract, however, I own only a half interest in the J. G. Crouch tract, my wife Minnie B. Barnes already owning the other half.'

The part of the long consent decree which is material now is as follows:

'And it further appearing to the Court that the complainant Minnie B. Barnes, one of the executrixes of said will, and beneficiaries thereunder, was the second wife of the testator J. W. Barnes, and is the mother of P. H. Wood, and the mother-in-law of Levi Amonett, two of the beneficiaries under said will; that defendant Edna Pierce was the only daughter or child of the testator, J. W. Barnes, and is the mother of Arthur Pierce, Elsie Pierce Holt, Emogene Pierce Pendergrass, Evaline Pierce Phillips and Betty Joe Pierce, all beneficiaries under said will; and that all of said adult beneficiaries have agreed upon a construction of said will of J. W. Barnes, deceased, and upon a disposition of the property,[36 TENNAPP 185] real and personal, which he owned at the time of his death, and which agreement is as follows:

* * *

'2nd. That all of...